ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602260045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press
note: below
Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign fired a South Carolina organizer who worked for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, and faces still more questions about extremists in its camp.
William Carter, a Saluda chiropractor, said Friday he was removed from the campaign's state steering committee when reporters started asking about his role as Duke's 1992 presidential campaign chief in South Carolina.
Campaigning in Arizona, Buchanan said, ``We don't want anybody in our campaign who's associated with any organization today that is racist or has any ties to these groups which I find deeply offensive.''
But he added that he can't ``check the resume of everybody who happens to wander into my campaign.''
In Louisiana, at least three Buchanan delegates have reported ties to Duke. One of them, Vincent Bruno of Kenner, confirmed he backed the former Klan leader in the 1991 runoff for governor but later decided he ``was not the proper messenger.''
``The leader of my Bible study on Wednesday night is black,'' Bruno protested. ``If I'm a racist, I'm doing a poor job of it.''
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, stung by his loss to Buchanan in the New Hampshire Republican primary Tuesday, has been trying to tag an extremist label on his rival, and a new poll indicated that might be taking hold.
In a CNN-Time poll of 1,058 Americans released Friday, 54 percent of respondents said Buchanan was too extreme to be president.
Buchanan's campaign came under scrutiny in recent weeks when one of his four national co-chairmen, Larry Pratt, stepped aside because of alleged ties to racist and militia groups. Buchanan defended Pratt, saying he should have a chance to clear his name of unfair charges.
Sandy Lamb, head of Buchanan's campaign in a Florida county, also was let go after it was discovered she was an official of the National Association for the Advancement of White People.
Buchanan denies racist leanings that some critics have drawn from his years of writing columns and from his advocacy in this campaign of severe limits on legal immigration.
He boasted anew Friday of hurting Duke by drawing more votes than him in 1992 in the Louisiana and South Carolina GOP presidential primaries. ``I eliminated David Duke as a serious national figure,'' he said.
In Houston, Republican candidate Lamar Alexander, former governor of Tennessee, said he would continue to focus on Buchanan's ``wrong ideas'' for the country but would not ``use labels, or try to smear him, or use guilt by association.''
Duke is a former Louisiana state legislator who lost runoffs for the U.S. Senate and governor in 1990 and 1991, failed in his presidential bid and is running for the Senate again.
Sandy McDade, Louisiana coordinator for the Buchanan campaign, said she opposed the involvement of hard-core Duke supporters but suggested they are not easy to identify.
``The problem is, if you're a Republican in Louisiana, the Duke factor is just a cross you have to bear. He's a media creation, and how much you may disagree with him, and I do disagree with him, he pops up in every election.''
Duke said Buchanan was dealing with a ``feeding frenzy from a liberal press trying to hurt a strong conservative.''
``The truth is, anyone in politics in this country is going to have supporters of all realms,'' he said.
In South Carolina, Carter said he was pushed out when the state campaign got a call from a reporter asking about his work for Duke.
``It's not printable in a family newspaper what I told them,'' Carter said. ``I feel like I have been publicly embarrassed.''
The Concord Monitor in New Hampshire first reported Carter's removal on Wednesday. The New York Times reported Friday on Louisiana delegates with ties to Duke.
Carter is chairman of the South Carolina Council of Conservative Citizens, which advocates flying the Confederate flag atop the statehouse - a cause backed by Buchanan.
Bruno described himself as a minor figure in the former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard's 1991 bid for governor, and Duke agreed.
``I sort of acted like a liaison with the religious right,'' said Bruno, 49. ``Mr. Duke, at the time I supported him, stated he wasn't opposed to black people, he wasn't opposed to Jewish people. I took him at his word.''
Buchanan won the narrowly contested Louisiana caucuses Feb. 6, came in second in Iowa and won in New Hampshire. South Carolina Republicans vote March 2.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. William Carter, a Saluda, S.C., chiropractor, is noby CNBlonger helping organize the state for Pat Buchanan. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT